Sojourners - gun lawshttp://sojo.net/taxonomy/term/9706/0
enINFOGRAPHIC: Guns in America http://sojo.net/magazine/2015/01/infographic-guns-america
<p>An interactive infographic exploring various aspects of gun violence and gun laws.</p><p><a href="http://sojo.net/magazine/2015/01/infographic-guns-america" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Americabackground checksgun lawsGun ViolenceGunsinfographicExtendedWeb ExtraMon, 17 Nov 2014 16:35:47 +0000Lani Prunés 62241 at http://sojo.netWhat We Need Right Nowhttp://sojo.net/blogs/2013/09/23/what-we-need-right-now
<p style="font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Any right-thinking stranger on our shores must read our daily news and think our nation has gone mad.&nbsp;We have cultivated the ability to end lives quickly; and yet we are continually surprised when our fellow citizens use the tools we have devised for exactly the purpose for which we invented them. Come to think of it, I think we’ve gone mad, too.</p><p style="font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">But our madness is not one that can be cured by laws alone.&nbsp;Laws can help to restrain us, and can help by making it a little less easy for us to find ourselves armed for murder.&nbsp;But we need something more, something that churches are better equipped to offer than legislatures are.</p><p style="font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">What we need right now is a richer moral imagination. We need better stories to tell ourselves, stories about the kind of people we could be. We need, more than anything, to learn to help one another to do the hard work of choosing not to pull the trigger.</p><p><a href="http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/09/23/what-we-need-right-now" target="_blank">read more</a></p>ChurchFaithGod's Politicsgun controlgun lawsGun Violencelawmakerslegislaturenavy yard shootingViolenceLife and PeacePeace and NonviolenceMon, 23 Sep 2013 16:30:17 +0000David O'Hara50455 at http://sojo.netWe Are in a Battle for the Common Goodhttp://sojo.net/blogs/2013/04/18/we-are-battle-common-good
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12px;">I hear it over and over again both during my conversations on&nbsp;<a _fcksavedurl="http://sojo.net/jim-wallis/on-gods-side-events" href="http://sojo.net/jim-wallis/on-gods-side-events">the road</a>, and as I skim the headlines each day, that&nbsp;<i>we are in a battle for the common good.</i></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12px;">I learned about the Boston bombings as my plane landed in Portland, Ore., traveling for an 18-city book tour to spark a conversation on “the common good.” As I read and watched more about the tragedy, there unfolded such a stark and brutal contrast between the explicit intent to kill, hurt, and maim others, and the actions of those who rushed toward the blast, risking their own lives to help the wounded. One act of vicious violence was aimed to destroy the common good and create a society based on fear. The others displayed the highest commitment to redeem the common good and insist that we will not become a nation based on fear, but on mutual service and support.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12px;">When real or imagined grievances combine with rage, religious fundamentalism, political extremism, mental illness, or emotional instability, we lose the common good to dangerous violence, fear, and deep distrust in the social environment. But when grievances lead to civil discourse, moral engagement, and even love and forgiveness, different outcomes are possible.</p><p><a href="http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/04/18/we-are-battle-common-good" target="_blank">read more</a></p>birmingham alabamabook tourboston bombingBoston MarathonCCTGod's Politicsgun lawsgun legislationimmigration reformJohn LewisOn God's SidesenateThe Common GoodFaith and SpiritualityLife and PeaceThu, 18 Apr 2013 16:01:46 +0000Jim Wallis47940 at http://sojo.netDeath in Broad Daylight: A Childhood Memoryhttp://sojo.net/blogs/2013/01/30/death-broad-daylight-childhood-memory
<p class="p1">When I was a little girl, my mother and I prayed together every night:</p><blockquote><p class="p1">Now I lay me down to sleep.</p><p class="p1">I pray the Lord my soul to keep.</p><p class="p1">If I should die before I wake,</p><p class="p1">I pray the Lord my soul to take.</p></blockquote><p class="p1">And then I would ask God to bless a list of people who were on my mind.</p><p class="p1">Every night I spoke about my own death, but death was not real. It never occurred to me that I would die or that my parents would die.</p><p class="p1">One day when I was in the fifth grade, we heard gun shots outside our school. Our teachers did not let us go outside for recess that day because a woman had been killed, caught in the crossfire of a domestic dispute between her son and his wife. By the time school was out, the body had been removed; there was no yellow crime scene tape. There was still blood on the ground to mark the spot of this tragic death. The next day it would be washed away.</p><p><a href="http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/01/30/death-broad-daylight-childhood-memory" target="_blank">read more</a></p>End the ViolenceGod's Politicsgun controlgun lawsGun ViolenceNewtownSandy HookshootingsLife and PeacePeace and NonviolenceWed, 30 Jan 2013 15:23:47 +0000Valerie Elverton Dixon46460 at http://sojo.netDrugs, Guns, and Immigration: An Unholy Trinity of Failed Policyhttp://sojo.net/blogs/2010/05/26/drugs-guns-and-immigration-unholy-trinity-failed-policy
<p><a href="http://sojo.net/blogs/2010/05/26/drugs-guns-and-immigration-unholy-trinity-failed-policy" target="_blank">read more</a></p>arrestbad guysbiblicalbloodborderborder areaBusinessCapitalismcheap drugscheap gunscriminalsdangerous jobsdrug cartelsdrug lordDrug WarDrugseconomic systemGod's Politicsgovernmentgun lawsgun policiesGunsHuman RightsillegalImmigrantimmigrantsImmigrationimmigration policyjuarez mexicoLaborMexicanmexican governmentMexicomigrant workersMigrantsNonviolenceNPRoppressedplea bargainPolicePoorPrisonRacial and Social Justiceright to bear armssecond amendmentsocial structureSt. PaulsystemterroristViolenceWorkersxenophobiaImmigrationHuman RightsLife and PeacePeace and NonviolenceWed, 26 May 2010 21:00:46 +0000Ernesto Tinajero30016 at http://sojo.net